Bill has been a leader in U.S. public radio management, local and national program development, and fundraising for more than thirty years. His professional tenure includes 12 years of experience in international media development in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa.
A founding member of the National Public Radio Board of Directors and author of the network’s original mission and goals, Bill led the development of All Things Considered as NPR’s first Director of Programming. While serving as Vice President and Radio Station Manager of WHYY Inc. in Philadelphia, Bill developed a five-year plan for the station’s growth. He secured a $1 million development grant and applied it to surpass all of the plan’s objectives. Under his leadership, Fresh Air and Terry Gross gained a nationwide audience.
Bill began his international work in 1993 by assisting community radio stations in South Africa’s townships as a 1993 recipient of a five-year MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. He returned to South Africa in 1995 as a Knight International Journalism Fellow. From 1996-97, he served as president of the Washington, D.C.-based International Center for Journalists, a leading print and broadcast journalism training program.
Bill served for ten years as a senior radio advisor for the Open Society Institute (OSI), which funds civil society initiatives in more than fifty countries and is among the world’s largest private foundations. His work with OSI took him to Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Ukraine, Macedonia and Moldova, as well as longer stays in Mongolia and South Africa. His work included assessing station news and information programming, management and technical needs, journalism and management training and mentoring.
Bill Siemering received the NPR Lifetime Achievement Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and has received honorary doctorates from State University of New York at Buffalo and Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania. In 2010 he was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame and is a Purpose Prize Fellow.
Courtesy of Developing Radio Partners.